Heart's Apocalypse
by Saint of Sinners
Summary: A Houndoom in the prime of his life is called upon by his trainer during the fight to claim champion of the region at the EFour Tournament. His opponent? The one and only Dragonite.


In a crackling display of falling light, I came from my container, a perfect red and white orb built at the peak of technology, obediently and gave my owner's hand a gentle lick before prancing onto the boulder covered field. My vision was limited by monstrous rock outcroppings that dotted the field, but this wouldn't be a problem. I was only expected to do battle with a Ryhorn, the first stage of the Ryhorn/Rydon evolutionary duo. This one had yet to transform into its final, and more deadly form. In fact, this disappointed me. I wouldn't get to fully show off my superb physical skills, which consisted of hand-to-hand combat, and special skills, which consisted of long-range attacks. None the less, I conformed and accepted the weaker, four-legged rock rhinoceros. The worst I had to worry about, being familiar with their natural attacks from past personal experiences, was the squat horn embedded in its rocky snout.

While its power was staggering for something so basic, I had agility, and a suave, yet wile grace. I could complete this battle on my own, but the decisions were not mine to make. I was but a soldier for my trainer, with whom I shared a close bond. Disobedience would shun my trainer's hard-earned reputation as one worthy of facing the elite-four, the crème de la crème of all the trainers, and I would not want anything so tragic to befall her(especially now that we were fighting in a packed coliseum for the right to fight the four, and finally the champion that reigned over the four. Thus, I followed the recently issued orders).

I was told to keep leaping from one bolder to the next, and I did as was told, continuing until each stone was gone, almost flying from one stone to the next. "It'll either end up distraught, or paralyzed. Then Houndoom, strike with a Shadow Ball..that'll bring it down." As instructed, I leapt from boulder to boulder to keep out of it's reach, letting out a devilishly haunting cackle each time it rammed through the boulder I had previously alighted on. It hadn't the agility to catch up to me. Once I had no more outcroppings to land on, I backed a distance away and carried out her instructions. They were followed with a precise care and precision that not even an Alakazam, one of the most feared psychic type foxes, could do a more thorough job. To give the hundreds on onlookers in the stadium surrounding us something to gawk at, I followed the ball of dark plasma thusly named "Shadow Ball" with a flamethrower. The protective flap in the back of my maw raised as ruby flames jetted past the fine ebony fur of my snout. Neither this, nor the previous attack was parried. I was embarrassed for the Ryhorn at its inability to reach me and prevent such damaging special attacks. But, I didn't complain. This combination had sent the squat little rhino halfway across the field, and knocked it out cold. It would awaken later, but since it was presently unable to battle, it was recalled by the opposing trainer. We made it to the semi-finals, so we were still fighting free-lance trainers who managed to make it to this point.

This victory gave me confidence, confidence that I could face any creature, whether it be the legendary Northern wind, Suicune or Machamp, the super powered fighter with four arms. My pride was only boosted when the stadium onlookers rose to their feet to cheer and applaud such a magnificent victory, as well as myself. Who wouldn't cheer for me, though? My fine coat was washed and brushed each and every day to keep it's lustrous ebony shine. Every tempered canine muscle could be seen rippling underneath my pelt with a strong, fluid motion. The bony crests upon my back and ankles shimmered like virgin-white snow on this sun-kissed day. I was loving life, and at the peak of perfection. Nothing was wrong. That was, until a colossal creature emerged from a black pokèball that had one golden stripe cutting vertically across the upper half. My heart sank when then creature took form. It was monstrous. At least to me it was. I knew then, this would be one of the hardest, and most demanding battles of my time. But I would pull through. I always did, for I was my master's pride and joy. Not once I had been defeated by any creature save for that one Blastoise, which to this day I don't understand why I, a fire and dark type, was used against the water type tortoise.

The wiry antennae twitched slowly atop it's head, with a small goldenrod horn stuck between the two 'feelers.' It's wings, they seemed far to small to support such a creature in the air, spread. The webbing between each spindly bone was tough, but destructible. I could tell by the hard outlines of each turquoise scale. Each of which, was noted with my sharp, crimson stained irises. They were like leather. It'd be tough to bite through. Not only that, but it's paws…and those legs…they were massive. Large enough to throw a Donphan to it's death, and it took great strength to throw this armor-plated elephant to it's back. Not only were it's arms and feet capable of fatal blows, but so was its mammoth tail. Though, I knew all this from second-hand experience. I'd once lost a close friend, a Tauros, to that demon. Yes, I was sure of it: a swipe of it's tail could spell death to any creature, despite it's size and health. And I was to face it. I had to go against a dragon. Not just any dragon though, I had to do battle with a Dragonite. This creature was of the same species as the creature that took my dear friend from me.

"May your burn! Burn in the heat of my inferno!" To the humans, this was merely a series of snarls and hellish barks. To the dragon before me, it was a death threat. The dragon tilted it's head curiously, wondering why I said such things to it, not knowing what had occurred in my past. I could tell it was innocent by it's gentle stare, untouched by hatred, left pure by the world. I pitied it. It wouldn't survive the match. Not it I could help it anyway. I would avenge the dearly departed's soul.

My trainer ordered me to keep my distance, to use one of my special attacks, but despite what she had instructed me to do, I launched at the terrible demon with all my might, horns and claws bared, ready to slam into the dragon mercilessly(I knew it was wrong to disobey her, but my hatred ran deeper than the very laws of nature itself). This was but the beginning of my barrage, and the total combination of attacks I'd just plotted would prove to be fatal if landed correctly. I knew the first attack had landed when I felt my curved horns dig into its armored stomach, and leave a deep gash in its abdomen. The Dragonite distorted in pain to the attack, and though it hadn't recovered, it grabbed hold of my ivory horns. This was my chance, if I could free myself from its grip, I could take away its flight while it was trying to make a comeback from my first attack. I wrenched myself from its grip by twisting this way and that, clawing with a wild animosity at the wound to keep it distracted. After a few seconds, I fell successfully to the ground. I took but a fleeting moment to catch my breath, then leapt and bit into its wing with the mightiest Crunch I could muster. This was one of my deadliest physical attacks that consisted of burying my razor-teeth, empowered by an ancient and unknown darkness, into an opponent.

As per usual, my maw was lined with an unseen, dark aura around it as I charged madly at the creature and bit into its wing, hanging onto the leathery membrane as if for life itself. I hung on despite the flailing, despite the numerous cracks I could hear coming from numerous bones. I didn't care, I couldn't feel much anyway through the rush of furious adrenaline that clouded my otherwise good judgment. That Dragonite though, it let out such a scream of utter agony that I, even in my absolute contempt, almost let go. This shriek was heard for only god knows how far away as a bloody bit of leathery webbing was yanked, no, torn from the bones of the wing's fingers, revealing the very bone itself. Warm blood from the severed veins and arteries within the scales filled my mouth and crept down into my throat, making me cough a bit and spit the chunk of tattered membrane to the ground before licking what remained of the dripping liquid away.

It wasn't over yet though. It's trainer, now desperate after the ruthless attempts to end it's once proud Dragonite's life, ordered a Thunder Punch that was to be followed with a Hyper Beam. Thunder Punch was powerful, but was nothing but a bee sting compared to the follow-up attack. Hyper Beam was one of the most deadly attacks, consisting of a beam of scalding plasma that could easily rip anything apart. Molecule. By. Molecule. At the time, I didn't hear what was being commanded of the creature, though I knew what I had to avoid when I saw the lightning charged fist fly at me as a sphere of blinding white light charged atop its small horn. It was then, when I saw it's Thunder Punch and charging Hyper Beam heading towards me that I felt the broken bones, felt the nearly unbearable pain of the damaged and ripped muscles. It was then that I felt the looming presence of death, and nearly fell helplessly to the ground. It was my time to go, but I delayed the inevitable. I had to stand though. I had to take the monster before me from the physical world. For my friend. That's all that kept me going now, all that kept me clinging to life. But it didn't help my ability to move much, so I did what I could and backed as quickly as I could against a boulder and braced myself against it for the burning sensation that came from the lightning, and the twang of pain from the impact. Though, unknown to everyone but me, I was charging a ball of dark energy, making it the most powerful accumulation of this energy that I had ever dared launch. Something so massive might implode, or fall victim to one of the hundreds of different problems attached to something that I had planned to make so titanic. I could launch such a massive Shadow Ball with luck.

Three seconds: My pupils retracted as the light came nearer, keeping my world dark. The energy within my slightly ajar maw was whole, but not big enough. It needed to be bigger. If not, it would survive. Survival was not a privilege I was going to give to the Dragonite.

Two seconds: Sparks that came from the dragon's quickly approaching fist of lightning flickered across my body, I could already feel a numbing darkness setting in. Things were fading away. It was almost over, there was no doubt about that.

One second: The lightning hit, sending volts of immeasurable pain through me, but I didn't fall. The hit only infuriated me. The rage that filled me, the anger that welled up when the memory of Tauros' bloody and fractured carcass was forced into my mind, paired with the contempt for the shocking fist, was a deadly force. The same, blessed wrath tripled the size of my Shadow Ball, which was already half as big as me. The visions went on. I didn't have the luxury of stopping the reeling images. The darkness fought with the light of the firing Hyper Beam as I stood, paralyzed momentarily by the memories, holding the launch off as the Shadow Ball grew still bigger. The smell of blood filtered through my sensitive canine nose as the bovine's blood was splattered before me after Tauros' decapitation. Though blood was spattered across my opponent and me, it seemed as if it were that bull's blood I was smelling instead. Tears flooded from my eyes as I swelled with energy one last time, causing the ball to grow twice as large as the dragon. Even though I hadn't fired it yet, it was already causing damage. Just to be near such immense energy brought slight pain to the dragon, despite the blinding beam of energy that struggled to fight off my Shadow Ball. Then, I let it go and wreak whatever havoc it willed upon the dragon.

The last I remember from that battle was feeling a burning sensation, followed by a body-wide migraine as I was slammed against the boulder I was braced against. The world was black save for us two, and everything seemed to be going by in slow motion, like I was supposed to suffer. Suffer for something I was trying to set straight. However, I knew for sure that the massive Shadow Ball hit, for I saw it's mangled and scorched carcass laying sprawled across my collapsing chest cavity with what little blurred vision that was left. Then..nothing.

A lifetime later, I woke in a clear box with tubes going everywhere through me, and multiple casts about my fractured body. Three tubes that came from bags were filled with blood and hung atop me, that blood was being forced into me. It felt odd to take someone else's blood. That though, was pushed aside as I took better note of my surroundings outside of the small box. The place I was at was sterile, to sterile. The air almost lacked a scent, and what I could pick up had a deathly smell about it, despite the fact that it was a Pokecenter. I recognized it as a Pokecenter from the medical instruments and the numerous female humans buzzing to and fro like Beedrill and Ledian. Air was pushed into my lungs and pulled in a steady motion with a horrible whine each time. But why? Though, that didn't take long to figure out when memories of the battle returned to mind, the machine was breathing for me. It was after I looked over to a machine that monitored my heart rate that I noticed my trainer leaning against the box, asleep in one of the most uncomfortable positions I had ever seen. She was there, none the less. My maw managed to curl into a meager grin as a barely audible yip slipped out. Her eyes flew open with tear-filled delight when she knew I had returned to the conscious world. Her hand reached over the rim of the pen to stroke me so gently. It was like an angel's kiss. She was so gentle, and so eager to comfort me. Sadly though, her hand retracted with a jolt as a growl laced generously with pain rumbled from that back of my throat. To keep her worries at bay, I let the arrow-head of my spindly tail thump against the bedding. This managed to put a meager smile across her otherwise worry-ridden lips.

Another woman, an nurse, clad in a bright lavender dress and white apron, as well as a bow baring a red cross atop her hot-pink hair, came to speak to my trainer in the human tongue. I could understand very little of the language, save for my assigned attacks. Other than that, I judged what she said by her tone. It was because I could hear the low, somber tone of the strange woman whispering to my trainer, that I knew there was grim news. Something was amiss, something was wrong. I saw tears well up in my trainer's cerulean oculars when both her and the nurse looked at me. I too began to cry, upset that I couldn't understand. I cursed myself for not knowing. I felt ashamed for not being able to tell my companion that everything will be alright. What reallymade her cry had suddenly dawned on me like a red sun rising over the horizon. It wasn't our inability to communicate, it was _I _thatmade her cry. I knew it was me when she looked at me and busted out in tears all over again. But, that wasn't the only reason I let tears slide from my own eyes. I saw her do something I'd never think she'd do to her pride and joy. To _me_. She rose from her seat, and trudged to the wall. She moved so slowly, and hesitantly. It took her years to reach the wall, where all the equipment that kept me barely clinging to life was attached to. I knew what that was. It was an outlet for the machines to plug into, it's what kept me alive. My head rose in panic, horror, and dismay when I realized what she was doing. My expression changed, to give her a questioning and longing look that spoke for itself. The machines turned off moments later, and the blood slowly stopped dripping from the bags that hung above me. The screen that monitored my heart beats made no more noise, and the screen went blank. I let out a mewl. She came and wrapped her arms around my sore, maroon tinted neck, despite the pain it brought me as sobs poured from her mouth like water from a faucet. This time, I used what little strength I had to keep from letting out a harsh bark of pain, for I knew what she did. She did it from kindness though, she didn't want me to live in misery. I managed to lick her cheek once more after staring at her with the most understanding, and loving eyes a hound spawned from hell could manage.

"I-I know, boy..I'll miss yo-you..and see you soon to..maybe…So…w-wait up, okay?" She managed to choke that through her frequent sobs. I nodded to show I would wait forever and a day for her as I managed to take in one last breath. I managed to force another few, dying heartbeats before everything faded into darkness. The nearby screams of my trainer faded into muffled whispers, then..nothing.


End file.
